Sunday, December 28, 2014

2-5-2008 spiritual warfare Part 3 part 2 commentary 4 "Lots of people love to use the devil as their escape clause and I won't let `em. ... when you sin and don't repent ... giving footholds

... I explain the world, the flesh, and the devil, kinda like I did with you. You got three ways the enemy comes at you--the world (temptation externally), the flesh (sinful response internally), before we talk about the devil let's talk about your personal sin, let's talk about your own repentance, your own moral responsibility. Where has your flesh fed the world? Where have you sinned against God? What things do you need to repent of? What changes do you need to make? Let's not blame everything on the devil like Eve did in Genesis. Right? Her answer was "the devil made me do it." Lots of people love to use the devil as their escape clause and I won't let `em. I'll talk about footholds and handholds again, you know, when you sin and you don't repent and you're living in sin and rebelling and believing lies and accusations you're giving your enemy footholds, he's making more ground.

Well, the woman's response was "the serpent tricked me", which even Mark Driscoll invoked as a way to explain why it seemed women were more gullible about some spiritual things. Yet here Driscoll transforms Eve's response into a "devil made me do it" excuse. Eve's defense could be construed as the "I didn't know what I was doing was actually wrong", couldn't it? If so, then by extension the same could potentially be said about that explanation.

Driscoll has preached this to others but has he understood its implications for himself. How many footholds did he give the enemy by resenting his wife about a lack of sex; by being bitter about it? Did Driscoll give any footholds along the way in being sloppy about citation or are demonic footholds restricted to sex, drugs and rock n roll rather than the use of money and power? Driscoll has never attempted to blame the devil for anything he's said or done that Wenatchee The Hatchet is aware of. Given what Driscoll said in 2008, he'll never be able to use that escape clause for any sins or ethical lapses he may ever be found responsible for. As Wenatchee The Hatchet has been documenting for a while now, when Driscoll's whole story is assessed by the criteria he has used to counsel and judge others, it can seem as though there's evidence from Driscoll's own legacy of preaching and teaching to ask whether he couldn't be the subject of one of his own demon trials. Whatever the case might turn out to be, his past counsel would be that nobody cut him the slack of a "devil made me do it" or "I didn't know" type of excuse.